1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an electrical connector assembly, and more particularly to an electrical connector assembly with multi-ports for interfacing with different mating connectors.
2. Description of Related Art
Computers have become an essential part of modern business. Through advances in chip design and manufacture, the cost of personal computers has dropped dramatically in recent years to the point where such personal computers are affordable by most consumers. As part of an effort to lower manufacturing costs, manufacturers have been looking for ways to more easily, reliably and flexibly assemble their computers.
While much attention has been paid to advances in chip design and manufacture, comparatively little effort has been put into optimizing the input and output connections to a personal computer. The input connections for a personal computer often involve input ports for a keyboard, mouse, joystick, microphone, video feed and, more recently, multi-use universal serial bus (“USB”) connectors. The output connections for a personal computer often involve output ports for a printer, video monitor, modem and audio loudspeakers.
Thus far, a patch work of approaches has been used for installing input/output connector ports onto a computer. Historically, connector ports have been located at the rear of the computer housing where they are difficult for the user to access. In the case of audio and visual connector ports, they have often been built as part an electrical circuit-board which must then be screwed onto the computer housing. Other connectors, such as USB and high speed communications connectors, have been wrapped in a plastic plug which again must be screwed onto the computer housing. All of this screwing of connector ports onto a computer housing is labor intensive and, therefore, expensive. Moreover, present techniques for installing connector ports onto a computer housing allow little flexibility to change the type of connector ports being used if the manufacturer wants to use the same connector assembly for both high end computers with many connector ports and low end computers with fewer connector ports.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,118,414 B2 issued to Spears on Oct. 10, 2006 discloses an input/output connector assembly which uses connector port holder that can easily be snapped into a metal retaining bracket. In one preferred embodiment, the bracket of the present invention is mounted on the front panel of a personal computer tower. Connected to the bracket is a first connector port holder with two USB connector ports, a second connector port holder with an IEEE 1394 high speed communication port, a third connector port holder with three audio ports (e.g., audio in, audio out and microphone) and a fourth connector port holder with two video ports (e.g., the so-called RCA composite video and S-video). However, the aforementioned connector port holders are integrally combined together via ultrasonic welding technique, and once one of the port involved in the connector port holder is broken, it may cause the whole connector port holder to be unable to hold the whole, and need to be replaced, for it difficult to repair such integral connector port holder.
Hence, an improved electrical connector assembly is highly desired to overcome the disadvantages of the related art.